Russian court bars from parliamentary ballot the only party opposing the conflict in Ukraine

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s highest court on Monday ordered the only party opposing the Kremlin’s military action in Ukraine to be removed from the ballot in next month’s parliamentary election.

The Supreme Court annulled the registration of Yabloko — which is Russian for “apple” — after an appeal from a pro-Kremlin party. Last month, the Central Election Commission had initially allowed Yabloko on the ballot along with 10 other parties.

Once a leading liberal voice in parliament and often critical of the government, Yabloko later lost its bloc of seats in the State Duma as the Kremlin tightened its grip on Russian politics.

In recent years, Yabloko was the only registered opposition party that opposed sending troops into Ukraine.

Its campaign slogans included “For a ceasefire agreement, diplomacy and peace!” “Our goal is to prevent nuclear war!” and “For a Russia free from fear and political repressions!”

Veteran liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky, who co-founded Yabloko in the 1990s and chairs its political committee, deplored the ruling and said the party would appeal it.

“Barring Yabloko from the election means a refusal to engage in dialogue with those who ask questions that make the authorities uncomfortable,” Yavlinsky said in an online statement. “We hope the authorities will heed the public demand for peace, freedom, and life without fear, and change their policy.”

Many Russian opposition figures in exile had urged voters to back Yabloko, including Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, and politicians Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza.

“I believe it’s morally and politically right to support the Yabloko party,” Navalnaya said in an Aug. 6 statement on Telegram, noting the party’s anti-war stance.

Yabloko chairman Nikolai Rybakov, who was in the courtroom Monday, sought to distance the party from what he described as unwarranted support from Navalnaya and other Kremlin foes living abroad in an apparent attempt to prevent its removal from the ballot.

In the meantime, social media buzzed with videos supporting Yabloko. Many didn't contain political slogans but instead showed young men and women holding apples when asked their voting preference for the Sept. 18-20 election or dancing to Russian songs that referenced apples.

Rybakov told the court the party wasn't paying for the videos, saying that people who posted it were backing Yabloko “simply because they want to live in Russia and don't want to get killed.”

The authorities likely initially allowed Yabloko on the ballot to give Russians an outlet for their discontent while also showing, through the party’s traditionally low vote count, that few people support its stand on Ukraine, said Nikolay Petrov, senior research fellow at the NEST Centre, founded by exiled Russian tycoon and opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

But Yabloko’s campaign for peace struck a chord and upended the Kremlin’s calculations.

Now “the Kremlin is facing a rather difficult task, to come out of the situation with minimal losses,” Petrov said, because kicking the party off the ballot is effectively “demonstrating that they’re afraid of what Yabloko stands for.”

Yavlinsky said the court’s ruling “speaks volumes about the importance of our platform — far more than any official election results ever could.”

He added that “the public demand for peace and freedom today has proven far stronger than the authorities anticipated.”

Several Kremlin-aligned parties have assailed Yabloko for its stance on Ukraine, and some even urged authorities to investigate it.

Sergei Mironov, head of A Just Russia Party, called on the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Justice Ministry to “look closely” at Yabloko and “give a legal assessment to their actions.”

“A party that openly opposes the special military operation, promises a shameful peace, and supports foreign agents is running for the State Duma,” Mironov said, using the Kremlin’s term to describe the 4-year-old conflict.

Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said Yabloko is not supporting President Vladimir Putin’s policies and has not helped “those suffering, those fighting on the front line.”

The Motherland Party filed the lawsuit with the Supreme Court demanding Yabloko’s removal from the ballot. It accused Yabloko of copyright infringement and exceeding campaign spending limits. The party also viewed Yabloko’s stance on Ukraine as unlawful and tantamount to calling for the violation of Russia’s territorial integrity.

Rybakov and lawyers representing the party in the Supreme Court on Monday rejected the accusations.

A crowd of supporters greeted Rybakov and other Yabloko representatives with applause as they entered the courthouse in central Moscow.

Yabloko has faced increased pressure in recent years as the Kremlin ramped up its crackdown on dissent to levels unseen since the Soviet era.

Several prominent Yabloko members were jailed or designated as “foreign agents” — a label that brings additional government scrutiny and aims to discredit the recipient. As a result, its most prominent members were not on the ticket.

Maxim Kruglov, a deputy chairman and former member of the Moscow city council, was convicted in June of spreading false information about the Russian army and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Another senior member of the party, Lev Shlosberg, is on trial for similar charges in his native city of Pskov, facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted. It’s the third criminal case brought against Shlosberg in the last two years. He has also been designated a “foreign agent.”

That designation was also slapped on Boris Vishnevsky, another Yabloko deputy chairman, in 2024. The designation forced Vishnevsky to step down from the St. Petersburg city council after legislation was adopted later that year, barring “foreign agents” from participating in elections or holding public office.

Police block the area at the Russia's Supreme Court after a hearing on a lawsuit to bar the Yabloko party from the upcoming parliamentary elections, in Moscow, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Judge Vyacheslav Kirillov pauses while reading the court decision during a hearing on a lawsuit to bar the Yabloko party from the upcoming parliamentary elections, at the Russia's Supreme Court, in Moscow, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Yabloko party leader Nikolai Rybakov, right at the table, and his lawyers, left of him, attend a hearing on a lawsuit to bar the party from the upcoming parliamentary elections, at the Russia's Supreme Court, in Moscow, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Yabloko party leader Nikolai Rybakov stands after a hearing on a lawsuit to bar the party from the upcoming parliamentary elections, at the Russia's Supreme Court, in Moscow, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Ben Jones, who played the good ol' boy mechanic in “The Dukes of Hazzard” TV series and parlayed his fame into a political career and two terms in the U.S. House, has died. He was 84.

Jones had a heart attack in his home Sunday in Washington, Virginia, as he was waiting to watch his beloved Atlanta Braves play baseball, his wife, Alma Viator, said on social media. Rappahannock County Sheriff Connie Compton confirmed his death.

Jones' fame came from his role as Cooter Davenport, the mechanic who got the Duke boys out of jams as they tried to do the right thing and fight the corrupt Boss Hogg in the fictional Hazzard County, Georgia.

After playing Cooter for all seven seasons of the series from 1979 to 1985, Jones turned to politics and was elected to the U.S. House from a district near Atlanta in 1988. The Democrat served two terms before he was redistricted out of the seat.

Jones was born in North Carolina and in college got involved in acting and civil rights, he wrote in his autobiography "Redneck Boy in the Promised Land: The Confessions of ‘Crazy Cooter.’"

Acting took over his life. Jones performed in numerous stage productions and had a few minor TV and movie roles in Atlanta during the 1970s before his life-defining break came on a TV show Jones defended as a modern-day morality tale and a fine example of Southern values.

For seven seasons, Jones was one of a small band of friends and family helping Bo and Luke Duke in “The Dukes of Hazzard.” The brothers were on probation for running moonshine and were constantly trying to clear their names and stop the crooked and powerful Boss Hogg from stealing or cheating.

The Duke boys drove a modified 1969 Dodge Charger called the General Lee with a Confederate flag on its roof. Cooter owned “Cooter's Garage” in the town square. Nearly every episode involved a car chase with jumps and stunts and a patrol car badly in need of repairs.

Cooter was often on the CB radio in his pickup truck saying “Breaker one, Breaker one. I might be crazy but I ain’t dumb. Crazy Cooter coming at you."

“The Dukes of Hazzard” was a hit for CBS and its popularity never waned. It went into syndication and later became a prominent fixture on cable's The Nashville Network.

Jones also credited the series with pulling him out of a self-destructive, alcoholic lifestyle that led to the failure of several marriages.

″It was like being in a Beatles movie,″ Jones said. ″Our lives changed.″

Tom Wopat, who played Luke Duke, said Jones was an integral part of making the series work.

“Ben Jones was a fine friend and a fierce advocate of all the best things we can offer in the entertainment business. He will be sorely missed,” Wopat wrote on Instagram.

After “The Dukes of Hazzard,” Jones went into politics. He kept his aw shucks personality, but took the issues seriously. In his four years in Washington, Jones was known as a Democrat who could buck his party. He was liberal on social issues and conservative on economics.

But even in politics, he made a splash. After losing in 1992 in his redrawn district, Jones ran for Congress again in 1994. He lost to Newt Gingrich in the elections that elevated the Republican to the Speaker's Office.

Jones would file an ethics complaint that Gingrich used tax-deductible donations to fund his partisan college course leading to a House reprimand and Gingrich's decision to leave the body.

Jones always embraced his role as Cooter. After moving to Virginia, he would open at least three “Cooter's” country stores in Nashville and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and near his home. They sold plenty of T-shirts, key chains and insulated tumblers and included Dukes of Hazzard memorabilia like one of the 300 or so General Lee cars used and abused in the TV series.

The show and Cooter lived on because it was funny, had plenty of action and car chases and had a good, family-friendly heart, Jones told the Richmond Times-Dispatch at a 2001 car show where he played in a band, signed autographs and met fans.

“The show reflects the values of the heartland of America. The good guys always win,” Jones said.

FILE - Ben Jones, Democratic candidate for Georgia's 6th Congressional District, assembles campaign signs outside his headquarters in Roswell, Ga., Oct. 20, 1994. (AP Photo/Leita Cowart, File)

FILE - Congressional candidate Ben Jones, center, prepares to watch the Hawks-Pacers NBA game at the Omni arena Nov. 8, 1988, Atlanta, GA. (AP Photo/Joe Holloway Jr., File)

FILE - Cooter, actor Ben Jones, sits atop one of the 229 hotrods, named the General Lee, used in the show "Dukes of Hazzard" as ecstatic fan, Aliceson Johnson, of Charlottesville, Va., sits in the drivers seat in front of his store in Sperryville, Va., Tuesday, Aug. 10, 1999. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)